The Compound Cost of Silence

Problems have expiration dates for cheap solutions.

The O-ring concern surfaced in 1979. Cost to fix: A design modification worth $50,000.

By 1985, fixing it meant halting the shuttle program—politically impossible.

By January 28, 1986, seven people paid with their lives.

Here's the brutal math: Every day you wait to address a problem, the cost multiplies. Not adds. Multiplies.

What's cheap to address today becomes exponentially expensive tomorrow.

Watch the timeline:

1979: Memo about O-ring erosion → "We'll monitor it"
1981: Concern elevated → "It's within acceptable risk"
1984: Problem documented → "We've flown with it before"
1985: Engineers alarmed → "Make it work"
Night before launch: Twelve-hour teleconference → "We're go for launch"

Too late.

Most teams optimize for today's comfort over tomorrow's catastrophe.

Daily check-ins become status theater—everyone's "fine" until explosion.

The elite teams you admire?

They've built systems that surface $50,000 problems before they become billion-dollar disasters.

They make early problem-sharing inevitable, not optional.

But knowing problems exist isn't enough.

You need systematic ways to fix them…

Next: The 10% investment that changes everything.

This is Part 2 of 5 in "The Silence Tax"